Are you afraid of the dark?

Who wouldn’t be afraid of the dark, the mysterious thing that sometimes hides in the closet, sits behind the shower curtain and lives in the basement? Little Laszlo certainly is. Unorthodox children’s author Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events) and equally unconventional, Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Jon Klassen (This Is Not My Hat) team up to dispel Laszlo’s...

Magic flutters by in a rich tale of family and loss

“The first butterfly comes the day after the funeral.” Often, the first line of a book is just that, a generic starting point for a story that has to begin somewhere. But sometimes, that first line can be magical, pulling readers into a book that they have no hope of escaping until they arrive, breathless, at the end. When the Butterflies Came is one of those stories. Its sublime...

A place to hide becomes a place to grow

Ever wonder what it’s like to be on a reality competition like “American Idol”? What if it were a show for child performers? What would their lives look like? Author Nan Marino brings us the story of Elvis Ruby, an 11-year-old boy who, after becoming the most popular contestant on “Tween Star,” freezes on stage during his final performance. To escape the paparazzi...

Searching for answers in a time of death and disease

The year is 1918, and wherever 16-year-old Mary Shelley Black turns, she is confronted with people’s fears of the deadly Spanish influenza. Desperate attempts to ward off or cure the disease abound: Victims are smothered in raw onions; the uninfected wear pouches reeking of supposed medicines around their necks to prevent getting sick; and soldiers returning from WWI have been...

Protecting a boy's (not quite) best friend

An author of sports fiction and thrillers, Michael Northrop shows his versatility as he turns to realistic fiction in Rotten. After spending the summer away from home, 16-year-old Jimmer Dobbs (or preferably JD) returns to his small town to discover that his single mother has rescued an abused Rottweiler that’s not too fond of men, including him. Their tenuous relationship causes JD to...

Summer love in the spotlight

Ellie O’Neill is probably the last person you’d expect to get involved with a movie star. She doesn’t really care about celebrities, and a secret in her own family’s past has made her skittish of even the idea of fame. Thanks to a misspelled email address, however, Ellie finds herself the unwitting pen pal of none other than Graham Larkin, teen heartthrob, who is about...